Hi,
If all goes according to plan I'll be rolling out the new APUG this Wed. U.S. time. Here is a list of the major enhancements:
-More professional looking design
-New forum software with too many features to list. Some things I like are the ability to have sub forums, attach files, great management of subscribed threads, highly functional private messaging including message tracking, better indexed by search engines, Buddy/Ignore lists, viewing options such as choice to use a threaded view instead of the standard view, the option to search individual forums, the option to search individual threads (this is great on huge threads!), option to include a profile portrait of yourself in your profile, and more..
-French and Dutch Forums added in a bid to open our doors to the wider global community.
-Integrated calendar, includes event reminders
-Integrated yearly subscription service (it is not mandatory to subscribe to apug, but we are offering subscriptions starting at $1US a month to help us stay afloat. Subscribers will have a forum designation of "Subscriber" instead of "Member".
-New Integrated Gallery System! This system is very robust and provides basically everything everyone has suggested the gallery have for the past few years, such as members being able to move their images from a category to their personal gallery, extensive search functionality on images and members, commenting system including email notification if someone posts a comment on your image, etc.
-A Fully integrated java chat room. This chat room is the real thing, not like our old chat room which was a web page refreshing every few seconds, the new chat room is live and hosted on a separate server which means you can stay in it all day if you like.
-A new Integrated Article system, not extremely robust but usable and requires no secondary login or complexity in uploading images.
-A new Integrated Web links system. This was a tough choice but well worth it. The old system required me to make 14 template changes anytime the header needed updating, the new system is really nice and requires no template changing.
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The old apug will remain intact during the migration. In the case of a disaster the new site can be shutdown and the old site re-activated. There could be anywhere from 2-4 hours of downtime. Once the old site is migrated to the new, I'll be in the chat room for live support, suggestions, or bug reports.
The old and new systems are similar so don't panic. I'd equate it to getting a new car -you still have 4 wheels, an engine, and a steering wheel -but a few buttons might be in different locations..
Fingers crossed all goes well!
If all goes according to plan I'll be rolling out the new APUG this Wed. U.S. time. Here is a list of the major enhancements:
-More professional looking design
-New forum software with too many features to list. Some things I like are the ability to have sub forums, attach files, great management of subscribed threads, highly functional private messaging including message tracking, better indexed by search engines, Buddy/Ignore lists, viewing options such as choice to use a threaded view instead of the standard view, the option to search individual forums, the option to search individual threads (this is great on huge threads!), option to include a profile portrait of yourself in your profile, and more..
-French and Dutch Forums added in a bid to open our doors to the wider global community.
-Integrated calendar, includes event reminders
-Integrated yearly subscription service (it is not mandatory to subscribe to apug, but we are offering subscriptions starting at $1US a month to help us stay afloat. Subscribers will have a forum designation of "Subscriber" instead of "Member".
-New Integrated Gallery System! This system is very robust and provides basically everything everyone has suggested the gallery have for the past few years, such as members being able to move their images from a category to their personal gallery, extensive search functionality on images and members, commenting system including email notification if someone posts a comment on your image, etc.
-A Fully integrated java chat room. This chat room is the real thing, not like our old chat room which was a web page refreshing every few seconds, the new chat room is live and hosted on a separate server which means you can stay in it all day if you like.
-A new Integrated Article system, not extremely robust but usable and requires no secondary login or complexity in uploading images.
-A new Integrated Web links system. This was a tough choice but well worth it. The old system required me to make 14 template changes anytime the header needed updating, the new system is really nice and requires no template changing.
-----------------------------
The old apug will remain intact during the migration. In the case of a disaster the new site can be shutdown and the old site re-activated. There could be anywhere from 2-4 hours of downtime. Once the old site is migrated to the new, I'll be in the chat room for live support, suggestions, or bug reports.
The old and new systems are similar so don't panic. I'd equate it to getting a new car -you still have 4 wheels, an engine, and a steering wheel -but a few buttons might be in different locations..
Fingers crossed all goes well!
